Online game technology provides a mechanism by which players located at remote sites can play interactive games with each other over a computer network, such as the Internet. The interactive games may range from simple text based games involving only a single player or a few players to games incorporating complex graphics and virtual worlds populated by many players simultaneously. Many online games have associated online communities, making such online games a form of social activity allowing players from all over the globe to participate in games and otherwise interact with each other. Because of the relatively large number of potential players and the fact that players often do not know each other beforehand, one of the challenges to online games is to match players wishing to play a game. Services have been created that allow players to be automatically matched against other players wishing to play a given game. Other online games have so-called online “lobbies” that allow people interested in playing games to meet.
Many online games allow a group of players to form a team and compete against other teams. The players on a team often need to know other players' information when they choose teammates and face their opponents. In order to make games more exciting and interesting, online games often provide some simple information, such as leaderboards, players' biographies (referred to herein as a bio). The leaderboards is a ranking list, which displays each player's score, overall ranking etc. A leaderboard provides an overall picture about the players who have played a given game. However, the information provided by a leaderbord tends to be very limited in terms of its usefulness for helping players to choose teammates, or evaluate opponents. Specifically, a leaderboard generally only advises how good a player is, but can't provide detailed information about why the player is good, and in which category or categories the player is particularly good at. For example, a leaderboard generally will not provide information regarding which player is the most balanced player. Similarly, a leaderboard does not provide specifically detailed information regarding a player's performance. For, example, in a first person shooter (FPS) game, a leaderboard might indicate an overall player ranking, but might not indicate whether that player has 71 sniper rifle kills.
Some online games allow players to submit their own biographies. However, these are usually ignored because they are perceived as being inaccurate representations of a player's real skill.
It is within this context that embodiments of the invention arise.